Post by Brebread on Nov 17, 2009 20:45:01 GMT -5
1. I'm very sorry for stealing your Thorty-thunder, Dragon, but more than one person can apply for a character at a time and I miss him really bad DDDDD:.
2. This application will be partly written in yet another freaky format provided by Bre.
2. This application will be partly written in yet another freaky format provided by Bre.
Gabby wasn’t expecting to do this.
Usually, the Wingless Corporation had interviewees come in a certain room at a certain time, devoid of anything else except for a chair and a semi-interactive recording machine that spews questions. But no, they couldn’t do that with this guy. She had been told that he was a skilled mechanic, so there might have been some opportunity for the Machine (yes, that was the formal name) to get seriously injured – after all, having someone else in the room with them might (heavens forbid!) bias their answers and stop them from seriously injuring the Machine. There was a chance of the Machine getting seriously injured without gear-heads to mess with them, so Gabby found this pretty redundant, but she wasn’t one to complain to her boss.
Gabby wasn’t in a good mood. She wasn’t supposed to be working on Saturdays, much less interviewing.
Sucking up the irritation she felt at something of this absurdity, Gabby slowly stepped inside the Battle Factory of Sinnoh. He was obviously rather important because she had been told to treat him with respect, and he clearly liked chilling around the Battle Frontier. It was pretty obvious she was going to interview the Factory Head… now if only she knew who the Factory Head of Sinnoh was.
And the first thing she was presented with was: “Oh, well, that’s nice. It broke.”
Gabby turned around to find a young man sitting on one of the more shadowy ledges jutting out of the Battle Factory’s wall, staring intently at a small teal machine in his hand. Figuring this Trainer was as useful to find the Frontier Brain as any other, she slowly approached him.
“Excuse me, but do you know where I could see the Frontier Brain here?”
“You’d need to enter a challenge first,” he said distantly, pulling the small machine back to him and beginning to peer at it critically. The boy looked at it almost as if he had knew it was going to do this but hoped against hope that it wouldn't.
It was obvious he was trying to ignore her.
“No, not for a battle,” said Gabby. “I'm sure he would destroy me in an instant... Oh! I mean I just need to interview him. For the Wingless Corporation.”
The boy’s eyes flicked back to her, and one eyebrow rose. “Alright, fine. Follow me.” He hopped up from his position on the sort-of balcony and set off at a brisk walk through the mess of Trainers, leaving Gabby to attempt following him with a similar amount of grace and failing majestically. "So you say the Frontier Brain would defeat you..." he said, more to the air than to Gabby (honestly, the kid didn't even turn around!)
Gabby began to speak, but the boy held up the teal machine he was staring at earlier. She took it as an invitation to shut up, and neither of them spoke for the rest of the trip except for some mumbling and a nod from her young guide.
Finally, the two arrived at an unmarked door in the corner of the Factory’s huge lobby. He opened it, and inside Gabby could see a room with two chairs and a few lamps as the only decoration. The boy stepped aside and waited for her to go in and take a seat, which she did. He followed calmly and shut the door softly.
“Now,” he said in a voice that was suddenly all business, quite unlike the relaxed tone he had used outside, “I believe you wanted to talk to me?”
He walked to the other seat and (after unhooking a small black box from his belt) sat down with legs crossed. He didn’t do anything particularly special with the box, but placed his hands over it as if protective.
Gabby found it difficult to contain her amazement. This kid, who was barely old enough to be considered to even enter the Battle Frontier, was the Factory Head? She blinked for a few seconds before his emotionless (though almost bored) gaze returned her to Earth.
Gabby whisked out a pen and notepad and began the interview."What do your parents call you?"My parents called me Thorton, like most everyone else did… but that’s not what you were asking about, was it? [THORTON smiles as GABBY shakes her head] No, I thought not. Well, my full name is Thorton Nejiki. [THORTON seems to notice GABBY’s pensive face, as he continues after a few beats of silence] Yes, it’s of Orrian descent, though most of the bearers have relocated to Sinnoh and Fiore by now."What do your friends call you? Nicknames, honoratives, anything?"
Friends…?
[THORTON seems to have been caught off guard by this question. GABBY nods, urging him to go on] Well… [He pauses, thinking before heaving a small sigh]
…the tragic-sounding truth of the matter is, friends haven't crossed my mind in a very long time. You see, when you’re presented with a job such as mine the possibilities for making friends are remarkably limited. Just working as a Trainer here, much less a Frontier Brain, does limit opportunities greatly. Though there’s still more restrictions placed on me and only me – well, alright, I suppose Argenta too – in that the Pokémon we use change after each battle. Trainers and Pokémon often build the strongest bonds while working together for a long time… which, of course, never happened… [His voice fades into silence]
…On that optimistic note, please call me Thorton.
[GABBY's eyebrows rise higher. Surely he must have someone who calls him anything other than his name...]
Well... yes, there are a few deviations from the name... [GABBY nods, as if urging him on] Such as... Thorty. [THORTON sighs, and says this with a sour expression. It's clear he isn't fond of this pet name] Dahlia and Caitlin have recently gotten into the habit of calling me 'nerd' and 'bird-hair', respectively, though in truth my hair isn't at all avian nor do I come across as a nerd.
...Do I? [THORTON looks at GABBY, seemingly honestly curious of what he seems to be. Granted, he does dress a little... formally for someone of his age, but it's hardly nerd material...]"What's your gender?"[THORTON frowns] I’m sorry, but I can only hope you’re required to ask this… I’m a boy."What do you do for a living?"You ought to know this by now. [THORTON gives a short laugh] I’m the lead of the Sinnoh Battle Factory. I don’t know what Noland’s problem is, truthfully, but for whatever reason he took the Battle Factory’s concept and slammed it in a Kantonian island commonly accepted as the Hoenn Frontier. He may be just trying to spread the concept of random battling around, but if I’m not mistaken there’s a Battle Tent in Hoenn that does just that. [THORTON shakes his head] I have never met him, so I never got the opportunity to ask."Do you think I need wrinkle cream?"[GABBY makes a mildly disgusted face as she says this – her boss has a strange way of wording questions, and they weren’t allowed to deviate very much from the base meaning]
Uh… [THORTON seemed to be surprised too by the odd wording] …no. Not at all. I don’t really think you should be concerning yourself with that sort of thing right now… Uh, you’re far too young to be using wrinkle cream, aren’t you? …I mean, it’s not that I can’t tell that you’re obviously a younger woman, but… um… [The slightest hint of red flashes across THORTON’s surprised face. They both fade into silence as Thorton leans back uncomfortably in his chair, adjusting his crossed legs slightly]
[GABBY frowns as she breaks the oath of silence] No, I’m asking about your age.
[THORTON blinks and stammers his speech] Oh! U-um, so you were talking about me? Alright, then, I guess your superiors scripted these questions… [GABBY nods] A-alright. Well. I’m sixteen years old – please don’t hold it against me, I’m a perfectly competent battler.
N-next question? …Please?"So, do you think I need a diet?"You can see me, can’t you?
…Ah, wait, you need to convey this to the company. I thought so. [THORTON reclines in his chair, thinking, as GABBY whips out a camera] Oh! You must have thought of that already. Of course. [THORTON stands up and returns the black box back to his belt before standing with hands slightly out to the side for GABBY to take a picture.]
{THORTON is a boy of average height and pale complexion, probably from his tendency to keep inside for his job as Frontier Brain. The most defining feature is his hair; it’s green in the back, but his (severely overgrown) bangs have been dyed black. It looks like they were tossed together haphazardly to keep hair out of eyes, with our left side flung across his forehead and the other tucked behind one ear and sticking out behind. His eyes seem to be perpetually narrowed, and so tend to project a different meaning to whatever facial expression he uses – pleased looks devious, mildly irritated looks furious, sad looks dubious, and so on.
Over a black sleeveless vest and cuffed white shirt was a tie, the color of which fell somewhere between mint green and teal. It was similar in shade to the DAM and his belt, as well as the tongue of his sneakers. His pants go down a little past his knees, and are a forest green except for the hems which continue the green-teal color trend. Under that are long white socks and his sneakers, which have gray soles and varying shades of green plastered all over them. All in all, not the most usual attire for a sixteen-year-old Frontier Brain to be wearing.}
[GABBY took one picture and then put away the camera. THORTON took the box back from his belt and sat down in much the same position as he had earlier, except crossing his legs in the chair.] Alright, then. Moving right along."What's your emotional disposition like?"Oh, there’s a tough one. Good luck getting a completely honest personality question from the person himself. [THORTON laughs good-naturedly] Well, okay, fine.
I’ve usually got a pretty good temperament, but occasionally I turn sarcastic for a little while. Yeah. I try not to be, but people still keep complaining about it so I guess I’m not doing as good a job as I would like to. Some others say I’ve grown up far too fast, and I don’t really know about that – maybe I have. I don’t usually spend too much time with other people, nor have I ever been much of a social Butterfree – well, more a social Beautifly, I tend to get irritable when around certain people too long – and I guess that causes people to think I’m rude or too serious or something. [THORTON shrugs] Meh. I don’t care too much, really, as long as nobody starts insulting me."What's awesome in your opinion? Go ahead and list them."What? List them? I suppose you mean just say them in order. Well, here we go. [THORTON holds up one hand and sticks out a finger for each thing he lists]
One: the Battle Factory. When you’ve put as much into a building’s construction as I have and it didn’t turn out horribly, it’s hard not to like it. [THORTON smiles and holds out his thumb] Okay, so that was an obvious answer.
Two: variation. I can’t stand redundancy and seeing the same thing over and over again. That was one of the driving factors behind the Battle Factory, as a matter of fact; though it may sound mean or cruel to grow tired of one’s Pokémon, and though building a good relationship with them definitely increases their capability, it soon grew boring and tiring for me.
Three: using my hands. Not just to build stuff, but also for writing or video games – haha, I see that expression on your face, I do play video games on some of the rare and precious off time I have – [GABBY had, indeed, looked surprised that this boy, who had seemed so mature, did something as… adolescent as play video games] ...or read or do anything else.
Four: using my head. Another one of the driving concepts behind the Factory – taking what you’re given and making great things out of it, strategy for various Pokémon, or even just ignoring all forethought and doing things as they go along. It’s fun for me. [THORTON smiles] This also ties in with the whole 'reading' thing.
Four: The DAM, or Data-Analyzing Machine. Same principle as the Factory itself; when you've built it, you're inclined to like it. [THORTON removes a small teal-colored machine from the black box he had in his lap. It was about the dimensions of a Game Boy SP fully opened, and had a Pokéball design with the center looking like a camera lens] It can identify the Pokémon a Trainer has on hand. Very useful for battles. [It suddenly occured to GABBY that back in the lobby THORTON hadn't been telling her to be quiet, but checking her Pokémon] Please just say 'D-A-M'; if you treated it as a word that would be... unpleasant.
[GABBY nodded in agreement. DAM = dam = damn.]
Five: making up perce-
…
Oh, did I say ‘making up’? Excuse me. What I meant was ‘very quickly calculating percentages for things’. Yeaaaaah.
"And how about the opposite?"[THORTON closes his hand into a fist again] Same process. I won't mention variation and redundancy since I already told you about that.
One: Damion Kuotsugu. He is dumped in the Battle Factory for a couple of hours every so often… I swear, about thirty percent of the things on the upper floor have been broken or damaged by Damion messing around with them!
Two: Metronome. I know what I said about taking all that comes at you, but Togepis using Spatial Rend are not particularly pleasant events in a battle.
Three: Caitlin. She seems to have a fondness for acting like a stuck-up brat around me. {Bre’s Notes: If anyone takes Caitlin and they want me to remove this, I will!}
Four: Ghost-types. [THORTON shudders. GABBY thinks about pressing him on this, but then remembers the next question will probably answer that]"What are you afraid of?"[THORTON’s expression turns to one of disbelief] Is that really the order you’re supposed to be asking these questions in?
[GABBY nods]
Oh, fine. I’m not very fond of Ghost-types. It was… an incident in my past. [The air seems to distort behind him. GABBY tries to resist the urge to gasp in horror as a GASTLY materializes itself right behind THORTON’s head. It smiles and holds a wisp of gas to its closed mouth to signify ‘don’t say anything’, and swiftly sets THORTON to sleep. After slowly removing a silvery, gaseous strand, he lets the strand fly and it zips promptly through GABBY’s open mouth.]
{The scene switches to night-time in what seems to be a young boy’s bedroom, and it wasn’t hard to guess who owned it. A younger THORTON – about eight years old - was leaning on the windowsill, watching something outside.}
[YOUNG!THORTON flicks a strand of green hair out of his face] I don’t believe that Julia is still training at this hour… it’s almost seven! She’s in trouble. I mean, really… who wants to train a Ghost this late at night? She’s probably never going to use him to battle anyone anyway… [Despite his protests, TYOUNG!THORTON continues to watch his sister train. View switches to over YOUNG!THORTON’s shoulder, where a seventeen-year-old girl with blond hair is pointing at a tree. A SHUPPET hovers by her side]
Shuppet! Will-O-Wisp!
[The SHUPPET gives a soft coo and its eyes begin to glow. However, a strong wind happens to pick up at the same time, blowing directly towards the audience.]
{Scene reverts back to the present time and place}
[The GASTLY speaks, much to GABBY’s surprise] You can guess what happened after that."What do you do with your spare time?"In the small amounts of free time I have, I enjoy reading, building things, and basically keeping the small apartment above the Factory that serves as my living quarters in general working order. [GABBY blinked. It hadn’t even occurred to her that this young man lived by himself; surely there must have been other people around to take care of him?] …Ha, I know what you’re thinking. Yeah. I live by myself. It’s not too bad – really, it isn’t. [GABBY doesn’t look convinced, and THORTON tries to move the interview along] So… what’s the next question?"What's your reason?"What, to work with Pokémon? [THORTON blinks] Well, aside from the fact that I don’t have much else to do and the recurring notice of ‘I enjoy the variety of it’… [He looks skyward, thinking] Well. I don’t think I’ve been asked this question in quite a while. In any case, I suppose it’s because Pokémon have always been in my life, from Julia and her Pokémon who always seemed to find their way out of their Pokéballs and into the house to all the wildlife outside. I would feel like I’m wasting time if I didn’t work with them, I think.
"Mandatory angst?"‘Mandatory angst’. Really. [THORTON doesn’t sound amused, and GABBY shrugs apologetically and mouths ‘it’s my boss']
Well… I had a relatively normal childhood in Sunyshore.
My parents were somewhat older than most when I was born, and they already had an eleven-year-old girl at the time. Her name was Julia, and she seemed to swerve in interest between various things. They ranged from toys to singing to collecting things to Pokémon training, not many of which lasted more than a few weeks. I believe she’s still living in Sunyshore City as we speak, but that’s water under the bridge.
It was obvious from pretty early on that I was just a bit too logical and calculating for my own good. My father was a nice person, but sometimes he got a little too caught up in his appearances to everyone else. He put quite a large stock in putting on a masquerade of doing whatever he needed to do for the good of the family, other people, and-or his own ego. My mother was like this, too, only slightly less so. Julia followed along with whatever calmly and without complaint, and I guess I sort of did too. Sometimes. When I was younger. Eventually, though, I started objecting to what he was doing, because really what he tried to set up as ‘manners’ made no sense to me.
And I, being only eleven at the time, didn’t really know when to object and when not to. Some tensions arose as a result of my ‘lack of compassion for others’, but nothing heart-wrenching.
At least until Julia started deviating too.
Once in a while, she would stare out the window for hours on end, looking at something I truly didn’t see as interesting. I didn’t know what she was looking at until I asked her one day, when I was about eight.
‘Well,’ she had said, ‘there’s a guy living in the house next to ours. He’s sort of my age – way older than you.’
‘Yeah?’ asked I. ‘So what about him? What’s his name?’
Julia shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but he’s rarely-if-ever outside of his room. I think his window lines up with yours, and he never really closes that one even though he does all the others.’ Even though I was really only eight-ish at the time, I was still a little worried by her almost stalker-ish qualities.
As it turned out, he was actually a very interesting person to be around. And sure, he was always at least eleven years older than I was. That meant I only knew him for a couple of months before he went off on his own. But in those few months, he established the basics of simple mechanics and actually helped me in designing the first edition of the DAM, back then referred to simply as ‘the project’. He did a lot of the manual labor, but some of the stuff was my idea. Anyway, one day when we thought we were finished he whipped a Pokéball out from his pocket and asked me to scan it with the DAM v1. I didn’t know he had a Pokémon, but apparently he did. It worked just fine, and I was then clued in on the identity of his Magneton.
…And then around two days later he left and Amelia – his sister – knew nothing about it.
[GABBY mouths a few words – ‘What’s his name?’]
…Oh. Oh, right.
Cyrus."Any other notices for us here at Wingless Corporation?"I’ve told you about the DAM, haven’t I? [GABBY nods as THORTON holds up the DAM again] It happens to double as a GPS."You're a proxy, I know you are. Who for? Who for?"I frequently receive visits from the lurking monstrosity who goes by the name ‘Breloom’, but doesn’t look like one at all.
